Upcoming Presentation: “Past Links: A History of Jewellery in Wire” June 4, 2008

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, 8:00 pm
Past Links: A History of Jewellery in Wire
by Dianne Karg Baron

One of the forms of metal available to the jeweler is wire. The art of creating jewellery from wire is popular with many craftspeople, particularly those in gem and mineral clubs. The popularity among clubs can be explained by the availability of beads, cabochons, polished stones and other lapidary products that are commonly used as attachments. Wire has been used in jewellery going back to ancient times. Dianne Karg Baron will trace its history, from its earliest known beginnings to modern times.

The presentation will take place at Knox United Church Hall, 2569 Midland Ave., Scarborough, ON.(located on the northeast corner of Midland and Sheppard Ave.). Map here.

Guests are welcome to attend!

Problems with my server (UPDATED)

I discovered this morning that there seems to be a problem on my server with regard to the downloadable files. Until I get this fixed, if you get a message saying “Cannot open file” when you click the link sent to you, please just drop me a note and I’ll be happy to email it to you.

UPDATED (9:45 a.m.): I’ve resolved the problem, so everything should be back to normal now.

Tutorials FAQ – Refund Policy on Downloadable Products

“Can I get a refund on a tutorial I purchase from you?”

WRAPTURE tutorials are offered as fee-based, instant download documents. Documents purchased through WRAPTURE’s website are deemed immediately delivered, and non-returnable or refundable.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of electronic products, it is impossible to definitively confirm that a file has been deleted from a user’s computer and that any back up files and print copies have been destroyed. Therefore, refunds are not available or offered on any WRAPTURE tutorials.

If you have had problems with your purchase, please contact me, and I’ll do my best to work with you on a resolution.

Tutorials FAQ – Can I sell the jewelry I made from your tutorials?

I received an email today asking for clarification on the legal disclaimer on my tutorials. The sender wanted to know if she could resell items made from the tutorial.

The answer is a YES, but please don’t mass produce them!  I would appreciate if design credit is acknowledged :-).  I would also appreciate acknowledgment if you create derivative pieces from the tutorial.

For more information on Copyright and Trademark Notices, please see my Legal Notification.

A reply from my Secret Santa recipient :-)

I got an email from Angie Simonsen, the recipient of my Secret Santa gift this year:

Hi Dianne,

I again wanted to thank you for my necklace.

It’s is one I will certainly always treasure, especially coming from someone who’s work I first admired in the wonderful book, “Wire in Design”. I’ve always thought it so special and unique to be able to actually converse with some of the people that have really inspired me on thru my journey with wire, but to actually have a necklace from one, well – that’s really, really freaking cool.

I was going to leave a comment on your blog on the Secret Santa post, but it said it was closed for comments…

Stay wired!
Angie Simonsen
Wire Jewelry Artist
http://www.allthingsangie.com

Angie articulated exactly why I love to do swaps: it gives me the opportunity to connect with other people who share my passion. And it is freakin’ cool to get a piece from someone whose work you admire. I know exactly how that feels: I have received jewellery from several people whose style I adore, and I treasure those pieces beyond words.

(NB – I turned comments off on my posts because I was getting a lot of spam posts.)

Tutorial – QEW Earrings

QEW EarringsQEW Earrings

Inspiration comes from the strangest places! This modern-looking pair of earrings was inspired by an Art Deco-era light standard I spied while driving along the Queen Elizabeth Way, in Toronto – and hence the name, QEW! I can’t remember exactly where it was – somewhere between High Park and the Humber Hump – only a quick glimpse, but it was enough!

9 pages, 26 photos, 22 steps, plus design notes

FREE

Available now from my Tutorials Page.

(Let me know what you think of the new tutorials format.)

Happy New Year!

Found a freebie :-)

Does anyone besides me occasionally do a search for their own name on Google? (C’mon… admit it…LOL)

Actually, I was doing it to check how many sites are linking to mine. In the process I stumbled across a link to my Beaded Channel Ring tutorial, published in Lark Books’ Contemporary Bead and Wire Jewelry. So, give it a try!

One for my collection :-)

Ruby Net PendantTis the season for making something for myself for a change. I won this ruby cab as part of the prize for winning a a tutorial writing contest on the IGWJA board. The cab is so large it almost qualifies as a hood ornament. LOL.

Again as part of easing myself back into doing work, I decided to try my hand at some netting. It’s really tricky to get the netting even, and as a first attempt, this pendant is all over the place. Then there are the added decorative beads in the last row. I have some delica-type beads in my stash that have enormous holes – perfect for the double threading the netting requires.

Ruby Net PendantAll in all, the result is a simple statement. It’s a very heavy pendant to wear. I strung it on a handmade chain I’d been working on over several of my beginner classes. I made the links from 24 ga square wire to show my students what can be done with a simple S-link chain.

The close up shot shows the netting (with slight kinking in the wire) and the bead detailing. I started work on a second netted pendant using some fabulous lava stone beads I bought in Bancroft last summer. I quickly discovered that there are a two of ways of putting these beads on and each gives a different look. More when I post that pendant…

Ruby Net PendantI tried something different with the photography this time: using a translucent juice jug. Milk in Ontario is sold in bags rather than in jugs, so it was only the fact that we bought some OJ that I was able to get a jug. I’m not convinced it does better than my regular setup, but I may continue to play around with it.

Ruby Netted Pendant, Sterling and fine silver, 7.4 cm long x 4.8 cm wide. Private collection.

Secret Santa 2007

Once again it’s time for the Secret Santa exchange on CWJ.

As usual, I decided to try my hand at something I’ve never done before. I bought a bunch of stones off eBay a while back – mixed quality for the most part, but still useful for experiments. Caveat Emptor is the rule with eBay, so I knew not to expect top quality. Many of the stones are very very small, and so pose a challenge for figuring out a wired setting. The stones for this project were some very small marquise cut sapphires about 5×3 mm, if that.

Secret Santa 2007 It’s been quite a while since I picked up my pliers, so I’m feeling a bit rusty. Also not feeling particularly innovative, so I thought I’d try my hand at some of the techniques that seem to be popular on some of the online forums.

My result reminds me of the marcasite jewellery that was popular in the late 19th century. Hopefully my Secret Santa recipient will like her gift :-). I liked it so much, I made another one for myself, with gold-filled beads.

Sapphire Pendant,
Sterling and fine silver, sapphire,
4.8 cm long x .7 cm wide
Private collection

The Blog is up to date again (sort of)

After my disastrous deleting error last night, I’ve now got the most important blog posts back up. All I can say is “Thank Goodness for Facebook!”. I have my Facebook account set to import all the posts from this blog, so, while they were abbreviated, I was able for the most part to reconstruct them.

Lesson learned. Note to self: Don’t delete anything without doing a complete backup of everything, including the sql files.